communist democracy?

[MikeDT95]

Sorry for my ignorance if this has been discussed before and if this is sort of a stupid question. But why do people always seem to assume communism can't work under a democracy? Marx seemed to predict the running of government by the proletariat where the workers chose how things would effect there lives. So why is it looked upon as crazy as having communism where people have a say. I know past attempts at communism (socialism) from what I have read have little democracy. Of course I am a bit skeptical of what is "allowed" to be taught to me or of the biased articles I have looked through.

[thesadmafioso]

"The dictatorship of the proletariat, the period of transition to communism, will, for the first time, create democracy for the people, for the majority" V.I. Lenin, "The State and the Revolution"

Essentially, the confusion that the typical bourgeois frame of reference in relation to democracy emerges from an inability to understand this concept. No distinction is made between bourgeois democracy for the rich and democracy for the proletariat in the typical western style image of the term, thus they are unable to comprehend the intent and objectives of democracy when applied by communists. It is a matter of shifting the base of power for democracy away from the bourgeoisie, and this occasionally involves authoritarian methods to be applied against the former class of the oppressors. Issue arises when these means are not viewed in the proper context of empowering the proletariat state and when the are narrowly viewed as simply being blind acts of repression.

[SacRedMan]

The word democracy comes from the Greek words "Demos=people" and "Kratein=rule" But when it comes to bourgeois democracy, than it's just voting for leaders you've never met in real life and don't know what they want and who they are.

A society where all property, childeren etc. belongs to the society, is a democratic society.

[Ocean Seal]

The word democracy comes from the Greek words "Demos=people" and "Kratein=rule" But when it comes to bourgeois democracy, than it's just voting for leaders you've never met in real life and don't know what they want and who they are.

A society where all property, childeren etc. belongs to the society, is a democratic society.
This is a little strange. Why would children belong to society? They are people, so they would belong to themselves.

[SacRedMan]

This is a little strange. Why would children belong to society? They are people, so they would belong to themselves.

In the communist manifesto there is written that famillies should be abolished, eductation should be free,... So I interpreted it like that.

[Tommy4ever]

In the communist manifesto there is written that famillies should be abolished, eductation should be free,... So I interpreted it like that.

The idea of children belonging to society is something pretty out dated. You have to understand the historical context in which parents sent their children out to work to supplement their incomes (in order to survive) and in doing so denied them a childhood, an education and forced them to endure the most horrific of conditions. (Capital is packed with information about child labour)

In the West at least such conditions no longer exist. The idea of children belonging to society is therefore pretty outdated. It is also extremely counter productive. No longer is the family unit (again I'm talking mainly about the West) designed solely to gain enough income to sustain itself, now there is much more to it. Saying you want to abolish the family makes people look at you as some strange cultish person with stupid ideas who no one in their right mind would ever want to follow. So it helps make us even more obscure, unimportant and laughable.

[dernier combat]

In the communist manifesto there is written that famillies should be abolished, eductation should be free,... So I interpreted it like that.
The family as an economic unit was to be abolished.

Basically that means abolishing patriarchal social relations within families (and of course everywhere else) - e.g. the husband is not to be designated as the breadwinner and the wife the homemaker, etc.

[Mr. Natural]

Mike,
You sent me to my copy of the Manifesto to get the quotations right.

"In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." (emphasis mine)Could there be a more intense statement of democracy than that?

"Dictatorship of the proletariat" is descriptive of the transitional post-revolutionary stage, but is a phrase that has lent itself to much mischief and bourgeois propaganda. Marx didn't use this phrase in the Manifesto, but he did describe this stage of the revolutionary process: " The first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to establish democracy." The revolution was expected to take place in advanced capitalist economies where workers were a large majority, and so the "dictatorship" of the proletariat was to be the road to true democracy where social individuals create and produce their lives together.

Marx and Engels yearned for human liberation and realization, and true communism is a bottom-up, grassroots socio-economic system.